We're Going on a Bear Hunt

Last updated

We're Going on a Bear Hunt
We're Going on a Bear Hunt.jpg
Author Michael Rosen
Illustrator Helen Oxenbury
LanguageEnglish
Genre Children's literature
Publisher Walker Books (UK)
Publication date
25 December 1989
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
ISBN 0689504764
OCLC 18259147

We're Going on a Bear Hunt is a British 1989 children's picture book written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. It has won numerous awards and was the subject of a Guinness World Record for "Largest Reading Lesson" with a book-reading attended by 1,500 children, and an additional 30,000 listeners online, in 2014.

Contents

Plot and design

A family of five children (plus their dog), are going out to hunt a bear. They travel through grass (Long wavy grass), a river (Deep, cold river), mud (Thick oozy mud), a forest (A big dark forest) and a snowstorm (A swirling whirling snowstorm) before coming face to face with a bear in a cave (A narrow gloomy cave). This meeting causes panic and the children start running back home, across all the obstacles, chased by the bear. Finally, the children return to their home and lock the bear out of their house. The bear retreats, leaving the children safe. The children hide under a duvet and say: "We're not going on a bear hunt again!". At the end of the book, the bear is pictured trudging disconsolately on a beach at night, the same beach that is shown on a sunny day as the frontispiece. Most of the illustrations were painted in watercolour. [1] However, the six pictures of the family facing each new hazard are black and white drawings.

At each obstacle is a onomatopoeic description. Before each obstacle the children chant the refrain:

We're going on a bear hunt.
We're going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared.

followed by (while crossing the obstacles):

We can't go over it.
We can't go under it.
Oh no!
We've got to go through it!

At the end of the bear hunt, they (now safe from the bear at home), conclude with this line:

We're not going on a bear hunt again.

Characters and locations

History

The story was adapted from an American folk song; Rosen, who heard the song, incorporated it in his poetry shows and subsequently wrote the book based upon it. [2] Since publication, the book has never been out of print and each year has been in the 5,000 best selling books. [3] The publisher has stated that the book has attained worldwide sales of more than 9 million copies. [4]

Awards

The book won the overall Nestlé Smarties Book Prize in 1989 and also won the 0–5 years category. [5] In 1989 it was an 'Honor Book' in the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards. [6] The book also won the 'School Library Journal Best Book of the Year' and the 'Mainichi Newspapers Japanese Picture Book Award, Outstanding Picture Book from Abroad' award. [7] It was highly commended for the 1989 Kate Greenaway Medal. [8]

The publisher, Walker Books, celebrated the work's 25th anniversary in 2014 by breaking a Guinness World Record for the "Largest Reading Lesson", with a book-reading by author Rosen that was attended by 1,500 children, with an additional 30,000 online. [3]

Adaptations

Theatre adaptation

The book has been adapted as a stage play by director Sally Cookson with musical score by Benji Bower and design by Katie Sykes. The play has run in the West End and in provincial theatres. The ending of the performance has been changed so that there is a reconciliation between the family and the bear. [9] [10] Time Out magazine, who awarded four stars out of five, whilst describing the performers as "wonderfully entertaining" also said "those in the later primary years might find it a little boring – not an awful lot happens, after all." [11]

Television adaptation

Channel 4 first aired a half hour animated television adaptation on 24 December 2016 at 7:30 pm. It featured the voices of Olivia Colman, Mark Williams, Pam Ferris and Michael Rosen, [12] and added much dialogue and other elements, including a scene of Rosie being friendly with the bear before the others pull her away. The Daily Telegraph , giving the programme three stars out of five, commented that "The whole thing was skilfully made, but ... did it need to take such a carefree story and cast a pall of gloom?". [13] However, The Guardian said that adaptation was "sumptuous", "prestigious" but that "The animation adds a dose of festive sadness." [12] It was released on DVD by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment on 14 June 2017.

Mobile app

A mobile app, based on the book, was launched in December 2016. It is available on Amazon, Android, and Apple platforms. [4]

Cultural impact

In 2013, the novelists Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees wrote a parody of the book, called We're Going On A Bar Hunt, which was illustrated by Gillian Johnson in the style of the original and was published by Constable books and then republished by Little, Brown & Company. [14]

"Bear hunts"

During the COVID-19 pandemic, "bear hunts" became popular with houses across the United States, [15] Belgium, [16] Netherlands, [17] and Australia [18] placing stuffed bears in windows, in front yards, or on mailboxes for children to look for and find during walks or drives. [19] [20] [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie Walters</span> English actress (b. 1950)

Dame Julia Mary Walters, known professionally as Julie Walters, is an English actress. She is the recipient of four British Academy Television Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, two International Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Olivier Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Briggs</span> English illustrator (1934–2022)

Raymond Redvers Briggs was an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist and author. Achieving critical and popular success among adults and children, he is best known in Britain for his 1978 story The Snowman, a book without words whose cartoon adaptation is televised and whose musical adaptation is staged every Christmas.

The Carnegie Medal for Illustration is a British award that annually recognises "distinguished illustration in a book for children". It is conferred upon the illustrator by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) which inherited it from the Library Association. CILIP is currently partnered with the audio technology company Yoto in connection with the award, though their sponsorship and the removal of Greenaway’s name from the medal proved controversial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Bond</span> English author (1926–2017)

Thomas Michael Bond was an English author. He is best known for a series of fictional stories for children, featuring the character of Paddington Bear. More than 35 million Paddington books have been sold around the world, and the characters have also appeared in a popular film series and on television. His first book was published in 1958 and his last in 2017, a span of 59 years.

Barb Jungr is an English singer, songwriter and theatre writer, who has recorded versions of songs by Bob Dylan, Sting, Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emilia Fox</span> British actress and presenter (born 1974)

Emilia Rose Elizabeth Fox is an English actress and presenter whose career is primarily in British television. Her feature film debut was in Roman Polanski's film The Pianist (2002). Her other motion pictures include the Italian–French–British romance-drama The Soul Keeper (2002), for which she won the Flaiano Film Award for Best Actress; the drama The Republic of Love (2003); the comedy-drama Things to Do Before You're 30 (2005); the black comedy Keeping Mum (2005); the romantic comedy-drama Cashback (2006); the drama Flashbacks of a Fool (2008); the drama Ways to Live Forever (2010); the drama-thriller A Thousand Kisses Deep (2011); and the fantasy-horror drama Dorian Gray (2009).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Rosen</span> British childrens author and poet (born 1946)

Michael Wayne Rosen is an English children's author, poet, presenter, political columnist, broadcaster, activist, and academic, who is a professor of children's literature in the Department of Educational Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has written over 200 books for children and adults. Select books include We're Going on a Bear Hunt (1989) and Sad Book (2004). He served as Children's Laureate from June 2007 to June 2009. He won the 2023 PEN Pinter Prize, awarded by English PEN, for his "fearless" body of work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Morpurgo</span> British childrens writer (born 1943)

Sir Michael Andrew Bridge Morpurgo is an English book author, poet, playwright, and librettist who is known best for children's novels such as War Horse (1982). His work is noted for its "magical storytelling", for recurring themes such as the triumph of an outsider or survival, for characters' relationships with nature, and for vivid settings such as the Cornish coast or the trenches of the First World War. Morpurgo was the third Children's Laureate, from 2003 to 2005, and is President of BookTrust, a children's reading charity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sally Hawkins</span> British actress

Sally Cecilia Hawkins is an English actress who began her career on stage and then moved into film. She has received several awards including a Golden Globe Award in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards.

The Blue Peter Book Awards were a set of literary awards for children's books conferred by the BBC television programme Blue Peter. They were inaugurated in 2000 for books published in 1999 and 2000. The awards were managed by reading charity, BookTrust, from 2006 until the final award in 2022. From 2013 until the final award, there were two award categories: Best Story and Best Book with Facts.

Martin Waddell is a writer of children's books from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He may be known best for his picture book texts featuring anthropomorphic animals, especially the Little Bear series illustrated by Barbara Firth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Browne (author)</span> British writer and illustrator

Anthony Edward Tudor Browne is a British writer and illustrator of children's books, primarily picture books. Browne has written or illustrated over fifty books, and received the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2000. From 2009 to 2011 he was Children's Laureate.

John Burningham was an English author and illustrator of children's books, especially picture books for young children. He lived in north London with his wife Helen Oxenbury, another illustrator. His last published work was a husband-and-wife collaboration, There's Going to Be a New Baby, written by John and illustrated by Helen for "ages 2+".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walker Books</span> British publisher of childrens books

Walker Books is a British publisher of children's books, founded in 1978 by Sebastian Walker, Amelia Edwards, and Wendy Boase.

Helen Gillian Oxenbury is an English illustrator and writer of children's picture books. She lives in North London. She has twice won the annual Kate Greenaway Medal, the British librarians' award for illustration and been runner-up four times. For the 50th anniversary of that Medal (1955–2005) her 1999 illustrated edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was named one of the top ten winning works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paddington Bear</span> Fictional character in childrens literature by Michael Bond

Paddington Bear is a fictional character in children's literature. He first appeared on 13 October 1958 in the children's book A Bear Called Paddington by British author Michael Bond. He has featured in twenty nine books written by Bond, the last of which, Paddington at St. Paul's, was published posthumously in 2018. The books have been illustrated by Peggy Fortnum, David McKee, R. W. Alley, and other artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuart Hancock</span> British composer (b. 1975)

Stuart Hancock is a British composer of film, TV and concert music. Hancock is known for having composed the original soundtracks to series 2 of the BBC fantasy series Atlantis, the animated TV adaptation of We're Going On A Bear Hunt and the Netflix comedy horror Crazyhead. He won the BASCA British Composer Award in 2015 for his community song-cycle, Snapshot Songs.

Paul Francis Bright is an English writer, mainly of picture books and poetry for children. His stories have featured on BBC CBeebies and CITV's Bookaboo programmes. Bright has also written stories for CBeebies radio, and for the BBC Jam and BBC RaW web sites, as well as poems for school reading schemes. His picture book Quiet!, illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees, was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award (2004) and I’m Not Going Out There!, illustrated by Ben Cort won the Stockport Schools’ Book Award (2007). Crunch Munch Dinosaur Lunch, illustrated by Michael Terry, was shortlisted for the Red House Book Award (2010). His most recent picture book, The Hole Story, with illustrations by Bruce Ingman, was shortlisted for the 2017 English 4-11 Picture Book Award, given by the English Association. Bright is one of four authors selected to write new Winnie-the-Pooh stories for ‘The Best Bear in all the World’, an official sequel to the classic stories by A. A. Milne, published in October 2016 to celebrate 90 years since the publication of Winnie-the-Pooh. Bright has appeared at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Wigtown Book Festival. His name consistently features in the lists of the top 500 most borrowed authors from UK public libraries.

Juliette MacIver is a New Zealand children’s picture book writer. Her work has been widely reviewed and shortlisted for a number of awards, and her book That’s Not a Hippopotamus! won the picture book category of the 2017 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. She has four children and lives near Wellington, New Zealand.

Gay Hay is a New Zealand children's book author, based in Pukerua Bay, best known for her books Fantail's Quilt (2011) and Watch Out, Snail! (2013), both illustrated by Margaret Tolland.

References

  1. 1 2 "Interview with Helen Oxenbury for We're Going on a Bear Hunt". Channel 4. 16 November 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  2. 1 2 Tims, Anna (5 November 2012). "How we made: Helen Oxenbury and Michael Rosen on We're Going on a Bear Hunt". The Guardian . Retrieved 3 January 2017.
  3. 1 2 "Walker Books & The RNIB". Guinness World Records. Archived from the original on 12 May 2024. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  4. 1 2 Eyre, Charlotte (7 December 2016). "Walker and partners launch Bear Hunt app". The Bookseller . Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  5. ↑ Sprenger, Richard (10 April 2014). "We're Going on a Bear Hunt: 'The editors were so excited they were nearly weeping' – video". The Guardian . Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  6. ↑ "Past Boston Globe–Horn Book Award Winners". The Horn Book Magazine . 30 May 2011. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  7. ↑ "Michael Rosen". Poetry Foundation . Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  8. ↑ "We're Going on a Bear Hunt". Walker Books Australia. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  9. ↑ "WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT". www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  10. ↑ Vickery, Lucy (20 July 2013). "Bear hunting on Shaftesbury Avenue". The Spectator . Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  11. ↑ Bowie-Sell, Daisy (10 July 2013). "We're Going on a Bear Hunt". Time Out . Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  12. 1 2 Heritage, Stuart (19 December 2016). "Move over, Snowman! Let's have a cuddly Christmas with Bear Hunt instead". The Guardian . Retrieved 31 December 2016.
  13. ↑ Auld, Tim (24 December 2016). "We're Going on a Bear Hunt: casting a pall of gloom on a classic children's story, review". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  14. ↑ Crace, John (17 October 2013). "'We're going on a bar hunt … we're not old!'". The Guardian.
  15. ↑ Wynne, Sharon Kennedy (28 March 2020). "Bored kids are going on a bear hunt and it's adorable". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  16. ↑ "De Vlaming gaat massaal op 'berenjacht' tijdens een blokje om". De Morgen (in Dutch). 26 March 2020. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
  17. ↑ "'Berenjacht' voor kinderen, door coronacrisis, populair in Nederland". Hart van Nederland. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  18. ↑ "Socially distanced neighbourhood bear hunts are taking off around the world". ABC News . 25 March 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  19. ↑ Leonard, Robert (29 March 2020). "The Coronavirus Is Upending Life in Rural America, Too". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  20. ↑ Keeler, Sean (29 March 2020). "Coronavirus teddy bear hunts make social distancing fun — yes, fun — for Front Range families". Denver Post. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  21. ↑ ""Bear hunts" get kids outdoors while still distancing". Fox Carolina. 28 March 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.